Move Semantics

An assignment will transfer ownership between variables:

fn main() {
    let s1: String = String::from("Hello!");
    let s2: String = s1;
    println!("s2: {s2}");
    // println!("s1: {s1}");
}

The assignment of s1 to s2 transfers ownership.
When s1 goes out of scope, nothing happens: it does not own anything.
When s2 goes out of scope, the string data is freed.
There is always exactly one variable binding which owns a value.

Mention that this is the opposite of the defaults in C++, which copies by value unless you use std::move (and the move constructor is defined!).
It is only the ownership that moves. Whether any machine code is generated to manipulate the data itself is a matter of optimization, and such copies are aggressively optimized away.
Simple values (such as integers) can be marked Copy (see later slides).
In Rust, clones are explicit (by using clone).